All the good deals seem to be gone off Ebay. It is all powersellers selling stuff you can get locally - at the same prices. The bidders high you get from buying that cool item for dirt cheap in the final seconds is gone - replaced by the unremarkable 'Buy-It-Now'. Booooring!

I have both bought and sold on Ebay, and will continue to do so, though I have significantly cut back on both because of Ebay's policies.

Selling -

-What is the incentive to list items when you pay a fee regardless if it sells? I sell a lot more through Amazon now. While I hate their steep fees, at least I dont pay fees when it doesnt sell - and the listing is active for a month!

-Between the listing and final value fees, who can afford the PayPal fee on top of that? If you sell something for less than $10, you are almost in the hole!

Buying-

- All the good deals seem to be gone off Ebay. It is all powersellers selling stuff you can get locally - at the same prices. The bidders high you get from buying that cool item for dirt cheap in the final seconds is gone - replaced by the unremarkable 'Buy-It-Now'. The only time I really buy off Ebay now is when I am looking for something specialty or more obscure because it doesnt seem to be worth it otherwise.

- There seems to be little recourse as a buyer for unethical sellers. I can only open a dispute if the item was not received - and then it is usually turned down because the seller says they shipped the item but I didnt purchase insurance so my loss! Yet, when I have purchased insurance and didnt get my item - it is the seller who gets the insurance refund - not me who paid for the item!

- There is no recourse at all when you receive an item that is not as described. You cannot be reimbursed for original or return shipping and the seller generally wont give a refund without you sending the product back. When I buy a NWOT item, I dont expect it to look like it has been washed 200 times and found sitting in the bottom of a damp hamper for a month! But I have no recourse but to leave negative feedback. Screw the feedback - I want my money back! At least when I buy junk from Wal-mart that doesnt work, I can take it back, on Ebay I am S.O.L.

I think the new policy of not letting sellers leave negative feedback (only positive) is terrible.

This is only going to give sellers with bad reputations a better sales percentage and a better feedback rating.

So now buyers can leave only positive feedback which is bad if someone bids on your item then never pays, you can not as a seller leave bad feedback for that buyer.

Then you have to fight with Ebay to get your listing fee back and I had to do already. Lets just say it was a battle to say the least.

I used to buy on ebay and still sell although I don't list nearly as much anymore.  Between ebay and paypal there's hardly any profit anymore.  For those who complain about high shipping ... read the dang descriptions.  If you think shipping is too high then don't bid or buy the item.  There are plenty of sellers who charge exact shipping, which means they lose money on packaging.

Ebay is a company with the poorest customer service to be found on the planet.  They operate a website without inventory.  The execs appear to have no knowledge of selling and buying or what it takes to run a business that involves ordering and tracking inventory, creating a sales listing, packing, shipping, dealing with customer concerns, etc.  They make a lot of money from people who do these things and then have the nerve to run perfectly good sellers off the site and allow the scammers to stay.

The constant changes and tinkering with the site are a pain for anyone who uses it and I have yet to see anything positive come from it.  Ebay WAS a great company, but it is dying a slow miserable death to executive greed and incompetence.

eBay earned its original reputation because you could actually get a bargain most of the time.  Bargain hunters were drawn to the site and spread its fame and made it wealthy.  Sellers could list their items and have money in their hands in 3 - 10 days.  Seller fees were reasonable.  

Then the beginning of the change to Buy It Now and the first raises in fees began to change the dynamic.  Sellers faced the beginnings of this continuing trend of fewer buyers per seller and higher and higher fees.

The problem was and remains for eBay and its remaining sellers that there are too few bargains to be found and those few bargains that remain are lost in a sea of But-It-Now retail priced items.  It is just less and less  worth it to people anymore to spend all that time searching through page after page of retail prices (which you can pay anywhere) for that one bargain (which is not as good a bargain as it would have been if fees had been left at a reasonable level).

Over 8 years ago, I made the jump to start my own web site because of decreasing profits in the face of therefore unjustified fee increases.  With the next two rounds of rate increases, I was forced to cut lost profit margins by not listing except for special $.10 listing deals.  

I kept my eBay store since listing prices remained low and I still was receiving traffic redirected from my store to my own web site. Now I pay no attention even to "special" listing deals since the post sale fees are too high to make it worthwhile.

My own site, http://gymnasticszone.com/, is now headed toward 1,000,000 visitors per year in a niche market and eBay, which I credit for giving me my start, accounts for less than $200.00 profit a month.  Without eBay fee increases and reduced sales and customers, all of that business would likely still have been coming from eBay auctions and my eBay store.  

That's the story and continuing direction of eBay - from a hot word of mouth driven company that was a bargain for everyone to a company whose greed has made it of no consequence to the power and niche sellers that are the future of ecommerce business in America.

EBAY is #1 on my all time worst customer service...they have none.  You can email, but responses are general, and promises to "check into things" are never kept.  I haven't used it for over four years...

After being burned by a couple of Ebay purchases, I realized I'm better off paying retail and knowing what I'm getting especially when PayPal is refuses to get involved so I have no recourse.  I hated the feedback blackmail of some sellers.  One bad, deceptive purchase cancels 10 good purchases emotionally for me.  I like Craigslist because I can choose to view items before purchasing.  There are so many ebay sellers that decline local "pick-up" option which always makes me suspicious.

I don't know why sellers are so whiny about the new feeback system, they were never honest enough to leave feedback after they received prompt payment.  They always wait for the buyer to leave feedback first.  And then if you leave unfavorable feedback because the item they sent you was a pig with lipstick, then they blackmail you into withdrawing your feedback.  

L'l John...you sound like you're sticking up for the bad guys...eBay.  Bob is right...if he wants to sell something for a dollar or $500, that's his business & that's what eBay USED TO BE about.  I've been selling (and buying) on eBay for over five years.  One thing is certain...eBay is committing suicide.  I'm one of those sellers who weighs the items I put up for auction & charge exact shipping according to how I ship.  There ARE sellers who try to make money with shipping costs, but please...though I object to their methods, clearly, if I don't like the shipping cost for something, I'm not foolish enough to bid on it.  It's too bad there are people who don't take care of themselves by looking elsewhere.  I also don't buy from certain well-known, high-end, online department stores who charge shipping according to the dollar amount one spends.  That doesn't mean they're going to stop doing what they're doing.  There are thieves out there...both sellers & buyers.  However, it's my experience that it's the 'new,' hot-to-trot buyers who are quick to bid on and/or buy something outright on eBay without reading the auction's policies...not even the shipping costs...then they're quick to leave negative feedback faster than one can blink.  I've got two negative feedbacks out of over 800 sales, over five years...one was from somebody who knew how to play the eBay 'stall' game, wanted me to send her the item BEFORE paying for it AFTER winning it, refused to pay & ultimately left me horrible, untrue feedback...eBay couldn't have cared less.  The second one was from a seller...she was obviously unhappy with the item she bought from me because it wasn't her size.  She didn't say this...instead she accused me of selling a fake, high-end piece of clothing.  I'm good enough to weed through the eBay tree on sellers & buyers, so I could tell - easily - what she bought for herself & what she sold...specifically a high-end line of crystal.  Then she proceeded to break EVERY rule in the book on eBay...going so far as to sell the very item she complained was awful from me, saying it was 'beautiful,' but she'd let the 'winning bidder' decide, since she wasn't certain about the designer (implying I might have sold her a fake)...and she used MY eBay ID, saying I sold the garment to her (completely against eBay policy).  She broke about five, different eBay policies...blatantly.   I filed my complaints to eBay & they did nothing.  Why?  Because she was a power seller who sold Lalique crystal & with the fees eBay charges & their 'take' after an item sells, they made lots of money from this swindler seller.  I don't know even one, long-time seller on eBay who is hot to leave negative feedback on buyers...we just wish they would go away...but, the buyers...now they're a different story -- especially if they're NEW on eBay.  You see it all the time...they're quick to leave negative feedback because they don't bother to read...or understand...or have a moment's patience.  I've also gone the other direction & cautioned many, many people to NEVER buy from sellers with lots of negatives...even if they've got a million sales.  And the reasoning is simple...there are actually sellers with a million sales with 100% positive feedback.  Just because sellers show a slew of sales, doesn't mean they're honest.  In any event, buyers are more likely to leave knee-jerk or untrue & negative feedback on sellers...not the other way around.  But I LOVE the way eBay spins it...'buyers don't have to worry about sellers retaliating & leaving them negative feedback."  That's a hot one!  Ebay's just given ALL buyers a huge opportunity to 'screw around' with sellers.  They've lost my business.  It's usually pretty easy to tell who's telling the truth if you disect feedback & I, for one, had a policy NOT to allow bidders with more than a certain amount of negative feedback, or negative feedback that showed a clear pattern.  Guess I can't worry about that anymore...I could be selling to the man in the moon...eBay couldn't give a hot damn.  I can see them all now...sitting in the conference room...holding their regular, Monday-morning meeting...wondering who has any 'good' ideas...and then one of the morans speaks...and they all agree.  As many have already said before me...they mess up what was once a really good thing.  It's an old story that so many huge, [once] successful corporations can't seem to learn.

I am not surprised that people are losing interest on eBay including me. I used to buy and sell lots of both new and used stuffs at eBay 5-6 years ago, but not a single one lately. Ebay now is mostly a large retail store with 5% or 10% discount. I can go to local store and easily get 25% discount. Soon we won't hear about eBay.